The Two Professors
by ynotlleb
Summary: The life of Nobel Prize winners Sheldon and Amy. Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World."
1. Professors Fowler and Cooper

_**Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World" about Nobel Laureates Professor Fowler and Professor Cooper.**_

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Four months on from their Nobel Prize announcement Sheldon and Amy's previous scientific lives seemed to belong to another world.

Amy met Sheldon at the airport as he returned from another Guest Lecture.

"Good evening Professor Cooper"

"Good evening to you Professor Fowler" as he kissed his wife.

"How was Seattle?"

"It rained, there was a hotel, a University and I gave my lecture. They took me for lunch at the top of the Space Needle, the view through the rain was interesting. How was your school talk?"

"Even though the 'Fowler-Cooper science foundation' doesn't get any money out of these talks I enjoy this bit of being a Nobel Prize winner the most. My 'greatest job in the world' talk to school students encouraging them to get into Science is great fun."

"The weekend at last, we can take off our Professor hats and be Sheldon and Amy for a couple of days."

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Sheldon and Amy really enjoyed their weekends with their friends, they were so busy during the week they didn't get to see the others very often, even Leonard and Penny who lived across the hall. This Saturday it was Howard and Bernadette's turn to host the group for lunch. Penny was now 4 months pregnant, Bernadette had arranged for her to work in the office at Zangen before she went on maternity leave, she didn't have go on the road doing sales. At the weekends Leonard and Penny would help to look after Halley and Michael as practice for when their child arrived in 5 months time.

Sheldon and Amy entered the Rostenkowski-Wolowitz household.

"Greetings my other family, good to see you all again."

"Hello everyone, how are you feeling bestie?"

Penny replied "bleaugh, picked herring and salted cod don't taste as good coming up as they do going down."

Leonard said "where are you two off on your travels next?"

Amy "We are off to a conference at Princeton on Tuesday"

Sheldon "Any message for your mother?"

Leonard "Tell her I still forgive her and I hope she will do a better job as a grandmother."

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Saturday afternoon, after lunch, Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj made their weekly visit to the Comic Book store, Wednesday evenings weren't always possible for Professor Cooper with his Nobel responsibilities. Sheldon was pleased to see Stuart still had the Nobel Prize picture on the wall next to Howard's astronaut picture.

"Hello Denise, I was in Chicago 4 days ago and there was a Comic Book store at the airport. They had some 'Star Trek: Discovery' Comic Books, have you got any of these?"

On Sundays Penny, Bernadette and Amy would go out for a girls lunch. Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj would then look after Halley and Neil although this usually meant movie watching or a video game. This week Halley watched a bit of "Star Wars" before falling asleep on her fathers lap.

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Monday was Amy's favourite day of the work week! She insisted that she worked as a scientist on Monday, no Nobel Prize winner duties were to be done. One of the postdocs in the neuroscience department had been promoted to Senior Research Assistant so he could do the day to day running of Amy's research group. Each Monday Amy would meet with her group, attend neuroscience seminars and try and spend a little bit of time in the lab.

As a theoretician Sheldon's scientific work is less hindered by his Nobel fame, he still had his whiteboards. He tried to make as many Caltech seminars that he could, if only to try and maintain some contact with other active workers in his field. This particular Monday Sheldon and Amy were able to go home together. At the end of the work day Sheldon went to his wife's lab.

"Good evening Professor Fowler, ready to go home?"

"Yes I am Professor Cooper, I have just finished with Dr. Malik here, he will keep the group going for me until next week."

"Thank you Dr. Malik. Let's get home Amy, we need to be at the airport tomorrow morning at 9.00am for our flight to New Jersey..."


	2. Wedding

_**Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World" about Nobel Laureates Professor Fowler and Professor Cooper. Another wedding.**_

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Six months on from their Nobel Prize announcement Sheldon and Amy's flight from Chicago finally touched down at LAX at 3.00am.

It was 4.30am when they got back home

"Home at last Professor Fowler."

"Home at last Professor Cooper, we need to get some sleep, it's a big day tomorrow."

Next morning they awoke at 7.30am, after breakfast and a shower they put on matching "Flash" T-shirts as they were off to the Comic Book Store for the wedding of Stuart and Denise. The Bride and Groom asked if guests would wear Comic-Book, Super-Hero or Science-Fiction themed T-shirts at the wedding. Leonard and Penny wore Han Solo and Princess Leia T-shirts, although 6 months pregnant Penny was now so big she said she should have worn a Jabba the Hutt T-shirt! Howard wore a Slytherin T-Shirt, Bernadette wore Gryffindor, Halley wore Ravenclaw and Michael wore Hufflepuff. Best man Raj wore a "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" T-shirt. However, Stuart the groom wore a suit and Denise the bride wore a wedding dress as Wil Wheaton, in full Star Trek TNG dress uniform, performed the wedding ceremony.

After the wedding Sheldon and Amy congratulated the newlyweds.

Amy "Congratulations to the two of you, you look beautiful Denise."

Denise "Thanks to you two for coming."

Stuart "We are very grateful to you Sheldon and Amy. If it hadn't been for the two of you getting married I would never had plucked up the courage to invite Denise to come to your wedding with me."

Denise "Thanks to all of you for paying for our honeymoon trip to the New York Comic-Con."

Sheldon "Glad we could help, when do you fly out?"

Stuart "Tomorrow morning."

Sheldon "For once we aren't flying anywhere next week."

Amy "All we have is an evening talk at UCLA on Thursday."

Sheldon "I can make new Comic Book night on Wednesday."

Stuart "Well Captain Sweatpants is looking after the store next week, you will have to deal with him."


	3. Fowler-Cooper scholars

_**Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World" about Nobel Laureates Professor Fowler and Professor Cooper. Meet the students.**_

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Eight and a half months after the Nobel Prize announcement Penny was getting very big, she was due to give birth on July 4th. Amy and Sheldon were glad the baby was coming at holiday time as they knew they wouldn't be on their Nobel Prize winners travels that week.

Before that they had another Caltech fundraiser reception. These usually happened once a month, Professors Cooper and Fowler weren't initially that keen on these but after the first fundraiser reception resulted in a half a million dollars donation to the 'Fowler-Cooper Science Foundation' they decided to keep attending these receptions, they both managed to grin and bear it.

President Siebert met them at the reception.

"Good evening my quirky superstars, ready for another fundraiser?"

Professors Cooper and Fowler put on their Nobel Prize medals and said together

"Ready when you are, it's show time."

Sheldon and Amy followed Siebert into the reception room and Siebert announced

"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming to Caltech tonight. May I present Caltech's most recent Nobel Prize winners, Professors Amy Farrah Fowler and Sheldon Cooper."

After the applause died down Sheldon and Amy stood in front of a huge screen whilst the video of their Nobel Prize presentation was played. An incredibly dumbed down 5 minute animated film about 'Superasymmetry' was then played as Sheldon described what it was all about. The video of Amy's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, where she described being a scientist as 'The Greatest Job in the World' then played. Amy then spoke

"On behalf of my husband Sheldon and myself welcome to Caltech."

Sheldon then spoke

"After we won our Nobel Prize my wife Amy and I decided to use some of our Nobel Prize money to found 'The Fowler-Cooper Science Foundation' to encourage young ladies to get into science and to provide scholarships to study at Caltech."

Then Amy spoke again

"I am proud to present our first two Fowler-Cooper scholars, they will be starting their studies at Caltech in a couple of months. Please welcome Sara Gonzalez from San Diego and Rebecca Shahanga from Lancaster."

The two young ladies walked forward to join Amy and Sheldon to great applause.

Amy then finished up "I hope you enjoy the reception, we look forward to meeting and talking with you, welcome again to Caltech."

For the next hour Sheldon, Amy and the new scholars made small talk with potential donors. Everyone wanted a photograph with the Nobel laureates and their medals. The new scholars were quite articulate, they did a good job on behalf of Caltech and The Foundation.

Finally it was all over, Sheldon and Amy were free from their Nobel Prize winners duty for another day.

"Time to go home Professor Fowler."

"Indeed, let's go Professor Cooper."

Then Sheldon's phone rang, it was Leonard!

"Let's go Amy, Penny is in the hospital, it's baby time!"

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5 hours later Professors Fowler and Cooper were there when James Wyatt Hofstadter was born.


	4. Texas

_**Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World" about Nobel Laureates Professor Fowler and Professor Cooper. Texas.**_

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One year after the Nobel Prize announcement Sheldon and Amy went back to Texas for Meemaw's 90th Birthday Party.

"Hello Moonpie, you have made an old lady very happy by coming back to see me."

"We couldn't miss your Birthday Meemaw, we travel a lot these days but we made sure we were free to come to Texas this weekend, we have been looking forward this for months."

"That's right, if it wasn't for your supporting Sheldon's love of science as a little boy we would never have won the Nobel Prize together."

"I hear your friends Leonard and Penny have had a baby."

"That's right Meemaw, little James is 3 months old."

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Amy didn't go to Caltech on the Monday after the party, instead they stayed in Texas so Amy could give a 'Greatest Job in the World' talk at Sheldon's old High School.

Before the talk they met with the school principal.

"Welcome back Professor Cooper and welcome Professor Fowler. I am Veronica Duncan-Edwards, principal of Medford High."

"I remember you Veronica, you were Georgie's friend at High School. It looks like you did go into teaching."

"That's right Sheldon, I went to Baylor to train to be a teacher. I worked in Austin for 10 years, that's where I met my husband. Then I came back home to good old Medford to teach at my old school. Did you know when I returned here some of the older teachers were still talking about you nearly 20 years after you studied here?"

"Knowing my husband I am not surprised to hear that."

"I became principal 2 years ago, we were all very pleased to hear you won the Nobel Prize."

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30 minutes later Sheldon gave a short introductory speech for his wife.

"Hello Medford High, how y'all doing today? I am Professor Sheldon Cooper, 30 years ago I was a student here at Medford. Last year I won the Nobel Prize in Physics with my wife Professor Amy Farrah Fowler. Since we won the Nobel Amy goes to schools to help to encourage young people to get into science. Today I am giving her a hand with her talk, let's all give her a big Texas welcome."

After the applause Amy's 'Greatest Job in the World' Nobel speech appeared on the video screen.

"Thank you for that welcome, it is good to be in my husband's home town here in the great state of Texas..."


	5. Time passes

_**Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World" about Nobel Laureates Professor Fowler and Professor Cooper. Time passes.**_

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One year after the announcement of Sheldon and Amy's Nobel Prize the next years Nobel laureates were announced and two months later the prizes were presented by the King in Stockholm. After that the Nobel fame of Professors Fowler and Cooper faded slightly, they were no longer the most recent Nobel Prize winners.

They would still travel to give guest lectures but these tended to be monthly rather than weekly. Amy could carry on doing science although as a Research Professor she still had Dr. Malik to run the group for her. Sheldon and his whiteboards were able to continue with his theoretical physics work with fewer interruptions. They would do Caltech fundraisers every two or three months.

Amy kept doing her "Greatest Job in the World" talks at local schools which helped to increase the number of female applicants to study sciences at Caltech. 18 months after the Nobel Prize announcement "The Fowler-Cooper Science Foundation" had raised over 2 million dollars, there were three scholarships given out in the second year.

One year later a Caltech chemist won a share of the Nobel Prize for developing a ceramic oxide that was superconducting at 250K! Sheldon and Amy did a couple of joint Caltech fundraisers with Research Professor Alvarez but as there was no Alvarez science foundation to take a share of the Caltech fundraising money Siebert concentrated his efforts on Alvarez. Soon the only income for the "Fowler-Cooper science foundation" was from the sales of Sheldon's scientific memoirs and fees from the occasional Guest Lecture.

The "Fowler-Cooper science foundation" continued to fund scholarships, Sheldon and Amy knew that the money in the foundation wouldn't last for ever but they decided it should be used whilst it was still there.


	6. The Three Professors

_**Sequel to "The Greatest Job in the World" about Nobel Laureates Professor Fowler and Professor Cooper. Final part, The Three Professors.**_

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Ten years on from the announcement of Sheldon and Amy's Nobel Prizes the lives of Professors Fowler and Cooper had now stabilised to a new normality. Sheldon and Amy's Nobel fame still continued but at a lower level than nine years earlier. They would still give guest lectures every couple of months and Amy would still give her "Greatest Job in the World" talks at schools. However, they were able to spend most of their time doing their scientific work. "The Fowler-Cooper Science Foundation" still existed and had given 20 Caltech scholarships to young ladies over the last nine years. Sara Gonzalez, one of their first scholars had just finished a PhD in geophysics with Bert Kibbler and was about to start a postdoc at the University of Edinburgh.

However, the foundation had almost exhausted its funds. There was enough to fund one more scholarship next summer but after that, unless more funds were to be found, the foundation would be wound up. After Sheldon and Amy won the Nobel Prize they drew up a contact with Caltech for the foundation. When there was no longer enough money to fund any more scholarships the remaining money would be donated to Caltech.

Then one morning at 3.00am Sheldon and Amy were woken up by the sounds of laughing and screaming across the hall. Then there was the sound of knocking on the door of apartment 4B.

Sheldon opened the door to see Leonard with a huge grin on his face.

"Dr. Hofstadter, what is the meaning of disturbing our sleep at such an early hour?"

Then Amy said "please forgive my rude husband Leonard, but why are you disturbing our sleep at such an early hour?"

"Professor Cooper, Professor Fowler, I just won the Nobel Prize!"

Nobody got any more sleep for the rest of the night. Soon the phone started to ring in apartment 4A and didn't stop.

9 year old James was confused by all the noise and activity.

"Aunt Amy, what is happening, has my Daddy done something?"

"The year before you were born Uncle Sheldon and I won a very important science prize, called the Nobel Prize. Your Daddy has just won the Nobel Prize."

"Is that like the prize I got for drawing at school?"

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Five hours later Sheldon, Amy and Leonard went to work at Caltech and the madness continued. Leonard was glad that his Nobel Prize friends were there to help him get through his new life as a Nobel laureate. By mid afternoon Leonard got a message from the President of the University, she was travelling today but said she would be pleased to see Leonard tomorrow morning at 10.00am.

Leonard asked Sheldon and Amy into his office and locked the door behind them. He asked everyone to turn off their phones.

"My dear friends Professor Cooper and Professor Fowler, thanks for helping me get through this crazy day. President Robinson has asked me to see her tomorrow morning, I think you can guess what she wants to talk about so I would like a word with the two of you about something in our mutual interest..."

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Two months later, the day after his return from Sweden Professor Hofstadter joined President Robinson and Professors Fowler and Cooper at a press conference. All three Nobel laureates wore their Nobel medals as they announced that "The Fowler-Cooper Science Foundation" was changing its name to "The Fowler-Cooper-Hofstadter Science Foundation".


End file.
